Tie Your Shoes
by ihonestlydontknow
Summary: Response on the YJ request anon meme, so please read AN before reviewing. Rudolf West is very proud of his son, but he worries, so, so much.


Author's Note **READ BEFORE REVIEWING:** Before you yell at me that Rudolf West is _severely_ out of character, know that this story was written in response to a request on the Young Justice anon meme. They wanted to see Wally's parents being _good_ parents. If you can't see Rudolf West as anything other than a bad, bad man, this isn't for you.

**Tie Your Shoes**

Rudolf West loved his son. More than Wally would ever know, probably. When Wally was little, Rudolf used to take the boy fishing. That had been their father/son time. Alone all day in the boat, the two could bond while waiting for a fish to bite, and if one didn't, well... there was always next time, wasn't there? As Wally had gotten older, Rudy had gotten busier. He couldn't get away from the office as often as he used to and the fishing trips dwindled in number. But they still went, at least.

It had all changed after Wally's experiment Wally's successful experiment The experiment that gave his son super speed, and a proportionally fast ability to perceive things. It was great when the kid was running- it made dodging people and things so much easier. But it wasn't such a gift in a fishing boat. Wally became board easily now, and Rudolf could understand that. Even before the experiment, Wally had always been a bright kid, full of questions and random facts. He'd always been looking for something to do, to explore. Now Wally could do things double time, find out even more about science and how the world worked. But it was a double-edged sword. Even though his intelligent son could do things so much more quickly than the rest of the world, he still had to cope with the persistent pace that the rest of the world marched to. An hour stuck in traffic seemed like a day to the boy. Rudy didn't want to trap his son sit on a still fishing boat for a whole day.

And even if he had, they wouldn't last the whole day on the boat anyway. They'd have to break for lunch. The boat Rudy owned was small. There had barely been enough room for them, their tackle, and their food before his son had needed to snack constantly to just keep his blood sugar at respectable levels.

The constant snacking proved to be a problem, even on land, though. They never mentioned it to Wally, but the food bill for the house exploded, almost literally over night. It put more stress than they were comfortable with. Mary started working full time again, years earlier than she had anticipated. Their combined earnings allowed them to live the same as they had always done, even with Wally's unanticipated expenses. Sometimes Rudy envied Barry Allen for his well-paying job that he almost literally saw green- or red. But even though they had to be more careful with their expenses, he still able to provide for Wally. And he was proud of that.

He was proud of Wally, too. When he saw the news at night, or sometimes in the bar, he felt so proud of his boy Rudolf felt like his chest would burst, or that he would float up to the sky. That was _**his**_ son in yellow and red fighting bad guys, saving people, working with the Flash, and, with the Justice League. His friends would ask him what he was grinning about, but even after a few beers he would never actually say, only, "We got the best damn superheros in all the world." His friends teased him about being a fan of the Flash, but he didn't mind; his son was saving the world and doing great things, even if he couldn't say that out loud. It was enough to know that his son was doing good.

Of course, nothing comes without a price. His son was saving the world, but the world needed saving from something, and sometimes those 'somethings' were terrible, terrifying. _And his son was out there facing them._ After the last Fourth of July, when Wally had come home covered in scratches and bruises and told them that he was gonna have his very own team with Robin and Aqualad and Supey (who they learned later was a 16-year-old clone of Superman himself) Rudolf had had nightmares about things that could happen to his son with this new team. This team that wouldn't be operating in their relatively safe city, but all over. Rudolf knew that in other places, criminals didn't finish their beers and then turn themselves in. In other places, villains didn't care if someone was old enough to vote, or, hell, drive. In other places, the bad guys killed the people who got in their way, no matter who it was. And his son was going to be mixed up in that.

Rudolf had never been a man to really talk about his own emotions. He liked to sort through emotional upsets on his own time, on his own. With no one else. He didn't know how to say to his son, 'I'm horrified that you are on missions, dangerous missions that regularly bring you face-to-face with death. I'm petrified at the thought that some day I might have to burry you, and it brings me to tears to think that if it does happen I might not even have a body.' Instead, it comes out in lectures.

He yelled at his wonderful son over small things and large things. Criticizing and critiquing on things that he would never think to mention before, like 'tie your shoes'. (So many times, it's 'tie your shoes,' or 'make sure your shoes are tied' Because even though Rudolf West is no science major, he knows that if his son trips when he's running, no super-speed healing will keep his son's face from smearing across the ground.) And he's appalled at himself. He can't just say, 'I worry about you' he yells. And Wally's face darkens when Rudolf opens his mouth to talk to his son, and it kills him a little bit inside.

But one night it's different. One night, Wally stumbles through the door, back from a mission, and spies his father at the kitchen table. Instead of darkening like Rudy expects his boy's face to do, a thoughtful expression comes over it.

Before he can greet his son, Wally says, "You're like Batman, aren't you?"

"What?" Rudolf West has never been compared to the semi-mythical hero/vigilante of Gotham fame.

"I always thought you hated my powers," Wally admits, taking his shoes off and sitting down at the table with his father. "After I got them, you started yelling at me all the time, and you never invited me to go fishing." He looks down at his hands for a few seconds; a long time for a speedster. "I hated you that summer. I thought that you hated me, or my powers, or both. I forgot about it after a while, mostly. But you were always yelling and I never really ."

Rudy wants to breakdown right there, grab his son into a hug and tell him everything. But his damn throat won't open up to let him speak. "I-" by the time he gets that out, Wally is already continuing.

"But today Robin got chewed out by Batman. It was bad. Really bad. I thought Robin was going to cry. I thought I was going to cry," he confides, voice lowering, telling a secret. "But afterwards, Robin told me that he must have really scared Batman, because Batman only yells like that when he's scared. And that sounded familiar, for some reason. So I thought about it for a while, and realized that you do the same thing, don't you?" He looks up at his father, a tired half-grin on his face. "That's why you're constantly telling me to tie my damn shoes. You're afraid I'll trip or something, right? You're afraid I'll trip or something, right? And I know that I'd never be able to stand a whole day fishing, one way or the other. You figured that out right away, didn't you?"

He wants to talk, but Rudy's traitor throat is too tight to speak, so he nods.

The half-grin grows into a full one. "Iknewit!" In a second he's around the table, hugging his dad. "I'm sorry dad," he mumbles into his shirt. "I was a stupid kid. I can't promise to not make you worry, 'cuz I'd have to give up being Kid Flash, and I'm not gonna do that. But I want you to know I love you, Dad."

Rudolf wraps his arms around his son (God, how long has it been since their last real hug?) and chokes out, "Tie your shoes."

Wally tightens his hug, and smiles. "You too, Dad."


End file.
